England's Ben Duckett with teammate Ben Stokes celebrates scoring 150 runs during the 3rd day of the 3rd cricket test match between India and England, at Niranjan Shah Stadium, in Rajkot, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024
Credit: PTI Photo
Rajkot: England's Ben Duckett on Saturday called India's Yashasvi Jaiswal a 'superstar in the making' but said his side deserves credit for inspiring players in the opposition camp to bat aggressively in Test cricket.
Jaiswal dished out his own version of England's much talked-about 'Bazball' approach of run-making in Test cricket, cracking nine fours and five sixes in his 133-ball 104 before retiring hurt due to back spasms.
The Indian opener shifted gears all of a sudden in the final session. Having reached 35 off 73 balls, he peppered the field with powerful strokes to bring up his second century of the series and third overall in his career.
"When you see players from the opposition playing like that, it almost feels like we should take some credit that they're playing differently than how other people play Test cricket," Duckett told the media during a press conference here.
"We saw it a bit in the summer and it's quite exciting to see other players and other teams are also playing that aggressive style of cricket," he added.
"He looks like a superstar in the making. Unfortunately, he's in some very good form at the moment. He's due a couple of low ones," Duckett said while making a tongue-in-cheek remark.
Duckett, however, defended former England captain and senior batter Joe Root, whose reverse-ramp shot off Jasprit Bumrah resulted in his dismissal, which also sparked a collapse of sorts in the visiting ranks.
"I'd be interested to know if those people were against it when he was doing it to Pat Cummins and hitting him for six in the summer," Duckett shot back.
"I've no words really for it. It's the same as me playing a reverse sweep and getting caught at point. Options are practised and that shot has been very successful for him over the past year, so next time it may go over the slips," Duckett said.
The diminutive opener, who nearly broke the English record for fastest Test century on Day Two, finished on 153 off 151 balls with 23 fours and two sixes.
But resuming on 133, Duckett could not add more to his overnight total before being dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav.
Duckett said India had better plans in place for Day Three.
"It was one of those days when I feel we have to give credit to India. This morning they were very good and they didn't make it easy to score," he said.
"It felt like their plans were a lot better than maybe last night and unfortunately we just kept on losing wickets at the wrong times," he said.
"With the ball, I didn't think we bowled badly at all and Jaiswal has played another incredible innings there. He looks an amazing player," Duckett added.
Duckett credited his work behind the scenes for flourishing against Ravichandran Ashwin when compared to his previous face-off with the ace Indian spinner as well as Kuldeep Yadav.
"It was a long time ago and I was very young then. It's obviously a very tough place to come and tour and I've said a lot over the last so many years that I'm not the first left-hander to struggle against him," Duckett said.
"He's one of, if not the best off-spinner, to have played the game. Obviously I went away and worked hard at my game and my defence. It's the backing of this team that means I can go out and play with the freedom that I did yesterday," Duckett said.
The left-handed batter said England did not rue much over their batting collapse at the start of the second session, in which they were shot out for 319 having resumed at 290/5.
"We obviously played well yesterday, but we had so much work to do today. But we're always positive. It did happen quite fast, there wasn't much time to have much emotion," he said.
"Stokesy (Ben Stokes) spoke to us before we went out to field and said he actually wanted us to get out today and have a bowl at them and get cracking with it," he added.